This invention relates to apparatus for increasing the efficiency of internal combustion engines. More particularly, this invention relates to means for increasing the efficiency of the combustion in the engines thereby to result in greater gas mileage or greater horsepower or both as well as a decrease in the quantities of noxious substances, such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, in the exhaust gases.
The high price of gasoline, projected future shortages in world supplies of petroleum and concern for improving the environment have made the development of internal combustion engines in which combustion occurs with greater efficiency of paramount concern. It has occurred to some persons that heating the gasoline between the carburetor and the intake manifold, thereby to assure that the gasoline entering the intake manifold is completely vaporized rather than merely partly vaporized and partly atomized, would result in more complete combustion in the cylinders and, consequently, greater gas mileage or greater horsepower or both as well as a decrease in the quantities of noxious substances, such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, in the exhaust gases. Prior art proposals, however, have not been practical. For example, it has been proposed to insert a screen between the carburetor and the intake manifold and employ the screen as a resistance heater by passing direct current through it from the battery. The operation of vehicles powered by internal combustion engines equipped with such a system proved impractical. At low engine speeds or low loading, such as encountered when idling or driving at low speeds, the heated screen would become dangerously hot because insufficient atomized fuel would be coming into contact therewith per unit time to take up the heat by vaporization. At high engine speeds or high loading, the screen would not stay sufficiently hot to efficiently vaporize the atomized fuel, because the quantities of atomized fuel coming into contact therewith per unit time would be greater than could be vaporized by the heat output of the screen.
It is an object of the invention to provide apparatus for increasing the efficiency of the combustion in internal combustion engines while avoiding the disadvantages of prior art systems intended for this purpose.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.